The student and teacher surveys inform how we can make PLTW learning experiences better.  Feedback helps us design the following types of opportunities to student and teacher needs:

• Student events and competitions that complement the PLTW curriculum
• Recruitment of industry partners to visit classrooms and host students & teachers; and
• Tours of showcase PLTW schools across the Commonwealth for teachers and school leaders.

Student insights: The survey provides schools with useful information, such as their students’ level of interest in STEM and the skills that PLTW helps them develop.

Educator dashboards: Participating schools receive a school-specific dashboard  summarizing survey results including es how their PLTW programming is benchmarked to other schools in Massachusetts. Participating schools will also review  research conclusions and key findings about implementation best practices. 

Continual Improvement: The survey helps design programming (e.g., teacher training, industry connections, student competitions and events) to schools’ needs.

Students will complete the survey at the end of their PLTW unit/course. 

• Middle school: Surveys will be administered throughout the year to accommodate different middle school schedules (e.g., trimester, quarter, semester, and year-long classes). Teacher will receive links for all their classes for the entire year in November and can then administer as appropriate.  We will send reminder emails based on when the roster files says the course is scheduled to end.
• High school:  Surveys will be completed at the end of the year during May and June (depending on schools’ course end dates).

Teacher surveys should  be completed at the end of the year, in May and June.  

Grant-funded schools are required to participate in the survey. 

Schools that offer PLTW but are not grant-funded who wish to take part in this wonderful opportunity must make sure their students are rostered and sign the survey participation form. If you would like to participate please complete the form here.  If you have questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Teachers will receive an email from our survey provider.

Teachers will receive an email from our survey provider with instructions.

At the highest level, the student survey seeks to answer three questions:

1. What are students’ perceptions of PLTW?
2. How has participation in PLTW impacted students’ overall engagement in school and interest in STEM
3. What skills do students think are the most important for them to be successful? Does PLTW help students develop these skills?

At the highest level, the teacher survey seeks to answer three questions:

1. How satisfied are teachers with PLTW?
2. What does PLTW programming look like at the school level (e.g., course offerings, scheduling)?
3. What other programming or supports would  make PLTW even more effective for students and teachers?

Yes — rostering is a critical part of the process. Our survey provider uses roster data in order to generate the survey links for teachers’ classes. 

Teachers and leaders from participating schools will receive online data dashboards with a summary of their survey results.  Educators will be able to see responses from their class and, where possible, will be able to compare class responses to students across the state.

All students who participate in PLTW during the school year should complete the survey. The more students participate, the better and more informative your data will be. This will provide an accurate snapshot of progress and inform your teaching practice.

The middle and high school student surveys are designed to take approximately 15-20 minutes. The teacher survey is designed to take roughly 20 minutes. Students with limited English proficiency or special needs may need slightly more time to complete the survey.

The surveys are completed online on a computer or tablet.

The surveys are designed to be accessible by any device that can get online (laptop, desktop, Chromebook, iPad, etc.). While the surveys do not require any specific technology, it is important for teachers to confirm that the links that our survey provider sends are not blocked by their schools’ IT infrastructure. The e-mail that teachers receive from our survey provider will include instructions about how to test this.

The survey is voluntary, but we hope that all of your students will participate. The first page of the student survey explains that the survey is voluntary. Our survey provider will be sending participating teachers a sample notification letter that they can send home with students.

The survey is available in Spanish.

To ensure 100% student participation in the least amount of time, we recommend completing the survey during one of the students’ final PLTW classes.

The data from the surveys will be used in three ways:

1. For school and teachers to understand students’ perspectives on the class. Participating schools will have access to data dashboards that will show students’ impressions on the impact the class had on their interest in STEM and their STEM knowledge and skills.
2. To inform programming for schools. School feedback informs One8 Applied Learning Hub’s design of student and teacher opportunities like teacher networking and professional learning opportunities as well as student competitions and events and connections to industry.
3. As an input into PLTW’s formal evaluation of PLTW programming in Massachusetts. Project Lead The Way is conducting a six-year evaluation of the implementation and impact of the PLTW program throughout Massachusetts. This evaluation will increase understanding of how PLTW creates engaging learning experiences that help students develop the skills required for success in college and careers.